The Daily Signal - Matt Schlapp Responds to Cancel Culture's Attempt to Silence Him

Episode Date: June 30, 2020

Cancel culture strikes again! Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and founder of the consulting firm Cove Strategies, has received a great deal of backlash after speaking out against some of the left-wing progressive beliefs of the Black Lives Matter Coalition. Schlapp joins the podcast to discuss the dangerous road cancel culture could take America down. We also cover these stories: The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the president now has the authority to fire the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief. The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law demanding abortion providers have hospital admitting privileges. Iran is putting out an arrest warrant for President Donald Trump and others involved in the drone strike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in January. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get the yes you've been waiting for at Capital One.ca.ca. slash yes. Terms and conditions apply. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, June 30th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Virginia Allen. Cancel culture is becoming more and more prevalent in our society. Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and founder of a consulting firm Co-Stratageys, joins the podcast to discuss the dangerous road cancel culture could take America down. Schlapp shares his own personal experience of being canceled after he spoke. against some of the beliefs of the Black Lives Matter Coalition. And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star

rating on Apple Podcasts, and please encourage others to subscribe. Now, onto our top news. The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law demanding abortion providers have hospital admitting privileges. The vote was 5'4, and Chief Justice John Roberts voted with the more liberal justices. Katrina Jackson, a Louisiana state senator and author of the legislation, said in a video, per the Daily Caller News Foundation, that the Supreme Court has issued a tragic decision that continues its practice of putting the interests of for-profit abortion businesses ahead of the health and safety of women. Heritage Foundation President K.C. James said in a statement,

It's profoundly disappointing that the Supreme Court has once again failed to uphold a common-sense law that protects women. by agreeing to a result that he said was wrong just four years ago, Chief Justice Roberts and the four liberal members of the court has struck down a law and signaled to abortionists that not only are they exempt from the most basic medical standards and safety requirements, but that the abortion industry's bottom line is more important than women's health and safety. The president now has the authority to fire the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Chief. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled five to four that it was unconstitutional for the president

to not have the authority to fire the Consumer Bureau Chief for any reason at any time. The Consumer Bureau was established in 2010 in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The goal of the Bureau is to create accountability for firms to prevent another recession like the one in 2008. Up until now, the president was only able to fire the Bureau Chief for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the decision for the case and said, The structure of the CFPB, or Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, violates the separation of powers.

And he continued on writing, The agency may continue to operate, but its director in light of our decision must be removable by the president at will. Has Russia been paying bounties for the death of Americans in Afghanistan? That was the conclusion of a recent New York Times article, and now lawmakers are asking questions. Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming and one of the top House Republicans tweeted,

if reporting about Russian bounties on U.S. forces is true, the White House must explain. Why weren't the president or vice president briefed? And who did know and when? What has been done in response to protect our forces and hold Putin accountable? Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, tweeted, I'm calling for an immediate briefing from the directors of national intelligence and the CIA for all 100 senators on reports that Russia placed bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. We also need to know whether or not President Trump was told this information, and it is. If so, when? Trump tweeted on Sunday, Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info

credible and therefore did not report it to me or Vice President Mike Pence. Possibly another fabricated Russia hoax, maybe by the fake news, New York Times wanting to make Republicans look bad. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is calling on President Trump to mandate the wearing of mass across America. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Cuomo urged the president to sign an executive order that would mandate all Americans to wear masks in public. To start simply, the president can do two things. First, sign an executive order directing everyone to wear a mask. How we're at this point as a nation. And we still haven't done the simple, easy, minimal step of saying, you must wear a mask when you are in public.

And the president doesn't have to pass a piece of legislation, doesn't have to call the Congress. Just sign an executive order saying wear a mask. We did it two months ago in this state. Cuomo added that the president should lead by example and wear a mask in public himself. Cuomo's exact words were, put a mask on it. Iran is putting out an arrest warrant for President Trump

and others involved in the drone. strike that killed top Iranian general Kashan Soleimani in January. Iran appealed to Interpol, which per reports, is not planning to act on the request. And U.S. Special Representative to Iran, Brian Hook, said, according to the Associated Press, it's a propaganda stunt that no one takes seriously and makes the Iranians look foolish. An African-American man is dead and an African-American teenager has been hospitalized after another shooting early Monday morning on the edge of Seattle's Autonomous Zone, known as CHOP. The Seattle Police Department received multiple calls around 3 a.m. Monday morning reporting gunshots on the edge of CHOP. By the time the police arrived,

the two men who had been shot had already been transported to the hospital by those who call themselves CHOPMetics. The man was later pronounced dead and the 14-year-old remains at the hospital. The two victims were reported to have been shot in a white Jeep Grand Cherokee, which the police found riddled with bullet holes. Seattle's police chief, Carmen Best, told the press on Monday morning per King 5 that the situation is fluid and there are still no suspects. Our homicide detectives searched for the Jeep and searched the Jeep for evidence, but there wasn't much we could find. The typical things we searched for in a case like this or in a shooting like this weren't there, and it is abundantly clear to our detectives, people had been in and out of the

car after the shooting. Detectives are trying to get information from witnesses, but as has been the case in other crime scenes up in this area, people are not being cooperative with our request for help. We are asking anyone, anyone who saw anything to call our tip line. This is the fourth reported shooting in or close to Seattle's declared police-free autonomous zone. within the last 10 days. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Matt Schlapp as we discuss cancel culture in America. Do you have an interest in public policy?

Do you want to hear some of the biggest names in American politics speak? Every day, the Heritage Foundation hosts webinars called Heritage Events Live. Webinar topics range from ethics during the COVID-19 pandemic to the CARES Act and the economy. These webinars are free and open to the public.

To find the latest, webinar and register visit heritage.org slash events. I am joined by Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and founder of the consulting firm Cove Strategies. Mr. Schlapp, thanks so much for being here. Great to be with you, Virginia, and please call me Matt. All right, I can do that. So today, Matt, we're talking about your personal experience with kind of quote unquote cancel culture. But before we dive into the current situation with your business, co-stratologies, and Black Lives Matter. Can you just tell us a little bit about why you founded co-stratologies and what you all do?

Well, when I got to Washington, D.C., I did what a lot of people do. I thought that the best way I could make a difference for my country was to join the Republican Revolution that took over the majority in the House for the first time in over 40 years in January of 1995. And I worked for a great conservative by the name of Todd T. Hart for my hometown at Wichita, Kansas, and I worked on his campaign, and I came to the nation's capital and started working for him, plugging away at conservative policies. And over time, I worked for President Bush on his campaign in 2000. I worked in the White House as a political director for the president, and I eventually went on to work for Coke Industries for four years. And then

after that, I started my firm because I'm a big believer that the conservative movement needs to have different elements involved in trying to change the town, to drain the swamp, to implement our policy desires. We need good people in government and we need good people outside of government to make sure these things can happen. Absolutely. So as you have worked with individuals inside of government, outside of government, who are those companies, those organizations that you've consulted for at Cope Strategies? Oh, it's a whole, it's all public and there's a whole variety of companies, you know, a lot of big companies, a lot of medium-sized companies, a lot of small companies. I don't know if I want to shine a spotlight too much on who I work for because clearly these radicals want to destroy me in every way they possibly can, as you can't imagine.

And it's, I'm laughing, but it's a stressful time. and I think the key is assessed. Look, I'm an aggressive conservative. I push hard on TV and radio on the streets of Washington, D.C., and around the country, and really around the world for our conservative principles. We did five CPAC conferences overseas, and we also have gone and done all kinds of interesting CPACs, including at a prison.

One of the reasons we did a CPAC at a prison in Chester, Pennsylvania is because we believe passionately that some of the approaches to criminal justice policy in the past have been quite detrimental on our civil liberties. And I think that the president's leadership on that issue has got people like me literally with a target on our backs because we are being, we dare to question whether or not African Americans and minorities should walk in lockstep with the new radicalism of the Democratic Party, which is now a socialist party. And I think we're a threat.

And I think that's the main reason why people might be coming after me, coming after my company, and now coming after CPAC itself, now literally making calls to donors at CPAC saying, you know, how could you support an organization that has a terrible person like Matt Schlapp as its chairman? So look, it's an integrated and very strategic attack on my character. It's false. And I'm going to be looking at all the options I have to make sure we can go back to the idea of a civil debate. Absolutely. Well, you mentioned those attacks, and most of them right now seem to be focused on a number of tweets that you've tweeted about Black Lives Matter, the coalition, specifically, that organization.

They've gained a ton of kind of spotlight since the killing of George Floyd on May 25th. And you have raised concerns about the beliefs and the platform of the organization. Can you expound a little bit upon that? Well, you know, I'm no perfect person, but I am a go-to-church Christian. I'm a Catholic. And I believe very in my heart passionately that we should do everything we can. can to combat racism. I do that in my work at the American Conservative Union. I try to live my life that way. I think all good and decent people do. I think when it comes to the question of

having very radical beliefs, I mean, this is something we've noticed with the Democratic Party and Joe Biden as well. But the idea that it's becoming chic and vogue to advocate for an organization that says that we should have legal abortion through all nine months of a woman's pregnancy, it should be paid for by taxpayers, that the family should be taken down and is not a positive cultural foundation, that families are bad for kids, essentially, that cops are evil and racist, and cops should be defunded, and we should have maybe even a national police force, which is obnoxious to anybody who has a constitutional sense of the way America should run. anti-Semitic. The state of Israel is something that's not supported

because they clearly have an animus towards American Jews. These are policies that we must call out. We cannot be for. You can want to fight racism. I want to fight racism. But you shouldn't be fighting America. We should be trying to bring America together. We should be trying to get the good people inside America who mean well

to work together for the change we need in society. And by the way, America has a beautiful story to tell on race. It's not a perfect story. It started off rather abhorrently with a black person being three-fifths of a person and legalized slavery. But we fought a civil war. We passed three civil rights amendments. We put a shot through the heart of Jim Crow. We changed institutions.

But now it's really not so much just this question about can we fight racism? It's this can we fight America? Can we bring America down? Can we start fires in her cities? Can we bring the whole system down? Can we bring every statue down, including statues of people that helped to create this whole idea of this democratic experiment called America? Can we bring St. Uniferosaura down? Can we bring Christopher Columbus down?

Men who helped Christianize this part of the globe. I'm sorry. I predicted on Twitter that they would then start to say we have to take down statues of Jesus and Mary. And literally days later, there was a call to take down statues. of Jesus and Mary. They're coming after the family. They're coming after our churches. They're coming after the institutions that are literally preventing the country from slipping into this radical abyss. And of course, they're coming after Donald Trump. And I'm closely associated with Donald Trump. My wife works for the campaign. She worked for him in the White House. President Trump comes

to CPAC each and every year. CPAC has become quite a big organization. And so the attempt is to shut me down and to shut me up for fear that I take a financial hit with the for-profit part of the work that I do. And obviously coming on your podcast, I want to be respectful and responsible at how I talk about things, especially as sensitive as what we're going through as a country. But I am not going to stop talking about the fact that going after someone's faith, going after our churches, going after the state of Israel and those who support the state of Israel, going after our law enforcement offices, which the next step will be going after our military men and women. I won't stand by for that. I don't think the American people agree with this

type of radicalism. I think a lot of people got buy into the idea that we need to maybe have a whole new conversation about race. I want to have that conversation. But I also don't want to do it within the context of blaming America first for every problem in society. Matter of fact, America as a country has done more to tackle. the sensitive questions of race than any country I know. And we've done more to help more people economically, no matter what color of the rainbow they are, than any country I know.

We accept more immigrants into our country than any country I know. And, you know, it's all that whole system, that whole system is under attack. And that's why at the ACU we're saying, let's fight racism, not America. Yeah, yeah. So let me ask you directly, In your mind, what is the difference between the phrase Black Lives Matter and the organization known as Black Lives Matter?

Well, I don't know. Of course, nobody would have a problem with the phrase Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is a great concept. Brown Lives Matter. White Lives Matter. Women's lives matter. Men's lives matter. All these lives matter.

The Black experience in America is unique and I'm a white guy. and I understand that I can't possibly walk in somebody else's shoes. I do get that. But I'm not going to be lectured to about the fact that I'm bad or maligned because of my race or because of my color. If people don't know my heart, they don't have the right to judge it. And I think it's important for people when they are the subjects of these attacks. And I don't know how many other hundreds or thousands of people are the subject of these attacks.

If they have something to be ashamed of, they should take care of that. If it's just being done for politics to shut down someone's First Amendment rights to opine on questions of politics and what the right policies are for society. So, for instance, let's think about this. Is it good to support a group? And there are a lot of these radical groups that believe that families have a negative impact on children and would be better for the state to raise those kids? We used to call that Marxism. Today, it's being mainstreamed. If you look at the black experience in particular, if you read people that have spent their whole lives trying to help the black community, it always centers on two things, trying to rebuild black family units and trying to support the black church.

Those are two things we should be helping. We shouldn't be supporting groups that believe that those two entities are helping to harm people and are the problem. It's the very, those are the very things we should be raising money for in helping, not criticizing. So, you know, this is a very, very stark difference in the approach. But even that being said, how could it possibly be controversial for somebody in politics and somebody to opine on a personal Twitter feed or a Facebook feed that they don't support legal abortion through nine months of pregnancy? that they don't support indiscriminately saying all cops are bad. Because, you know, Blue Lives Matter too. All of our lives matter.

They're given to us by God. God creates us and puts us on this earth for a specific purpose, and each one of us has a unique purpose, and we each have dignity. And that's why we went to a prison. That's why we went and stood on the streets of Hong Kong with the protesters. As CPAC went to Hong Kong and we were invited, the first Western group invited. We did that.

We didn't do that because we have racial animosity. We do that because we love our brothers and sisters who are fighting for the oxygen of freedom in Hong Kong. That's why we went to a prison because we want to stand up with people and show that we have equal dignity. No matter what you've done in your life, even if you've committed terrible crimes, you still have dignity. God still has a call in your life. And you still have responsible decisions to make moving forward, including keeping good family relationships and trying to live your life as best you can. And as conservatives, we all believe this. This is like knit in our heart.

Matter of fact, the idea of being bigoted or racist is so contrary to anything the conservative movement stands for or what our values are that it's almost shocking when the charge gets leveled because it's so different from what you are that it kind of takes the breath out of you. And I think that's a big problem. I think we have to stop being on defense. and we have to start leading because I think the American people are looking at what's going on in the streets of our country, and they're saying, what's happening to my country? Why is it wrong for me to have the values of, I believe in my church, and I want to be a regular church attender and be active, and I want to help families. And I think cops help keep order, and I think that we ought to stand for our brothers and sisters in the state of Israel.

And how can these things be radical ideas? Those positions. Instead, what's in vogue are the opposite of those ideas. And I think it's propagandized through too much of our media. They have done everything they can to put kind of a sexy sheen on this radicalism because they're wrapping it up with the idea that America is a bad place and a racist place. And I deny that. I think racism exists. I've seen it my whole life. I'm sure people of color see it. it much more and they see it much more personally. And if all this has this recommit to fighting it, I'm all for that, but that will not happen if we rip down America. If we rip down America, the last and best hope for men and women of freedom on earth, I guarantee racism around the globe will be on the rise, won't be on the decline. And I think there's a lot of people in these, who live in these cities, these cities that are now being terrorized by, you know, vandalism and arson and, you know, the idea that cops aren't responding to 911, that cops are having

walkouts, that the people of the city council in Minneapolis can defund the cops, but then they can hire private security that the taxpayers are going to pay for. So the office holders get to be protected, but the citizens really doesn't get to be. These, these are either illogical or insane times or very evil times. And if we don't start speaking up, no matter what the consequences, we won't have a country to reside in. Well, and Matt, you're right in the center of this. You're experiencing it in a very personal way right now. You posted on Twitter a number of tweets, one of which you said, growing list of companies

giving to Black Lives Matter coalition, which is hostile to families, capitalism, cops, unborn life, and gender. You pointed that out, as you've said, this is the platform of this organization. You've always been very, very open about being a conservative. You've never hid that. But now you have a company like Verizon breaking its contract with you. They've worked with you for seven years. Did they explain to you why they chose to break their contract?

They did. And I'm not going to talk publicly about any of that at this time. And I'd rather not talk about any specific companies. But what you report on, what you've just said has been publicly reported on. So that's very, you know, if people want to learn more, they can go do their research. And I'll just say this. I am proud of who I am. I'm not proud of every moment of my life.

I've made lots of mistakes. Lots of them in my 52 years. But with all the decisions I've made, I have an interesting human being and a unique human being like each one of us is. And I'm proud of who I am. And I won't be shamed. Even for the things I've done wrong, I won't be shamed by people who are trying to destroy me and by destroying me, destroy this great country. I will continue to speak up. Now, if there are consequences, there are consequences. And no one should feel sorry for me because God has, has given me wonderful gifts, and I've had a wonderful life, and I have my health, and I have five beautiful daughters,

and I have the world's greatest wife, and I have brothers and sisters and family, some of whom I'm with now, who have my back. So no one should feel sorry for me. But what they should do is realize that today it's easy to come after me. Why? Well, I'm too closely associated with Trump. Some people don't like my tweets.

And guess what? I'm not rich enough to not need to work. So I need to work so they can try to cut off ways in which I try to work. Okay? So all that's going to happen. to me. But who's it going to be next? Who's the next person down the line that go after? Is it an employee of one of these companies who goes to an evangelical church or a Catholic church who has the same views of families and unborn life and cops and Israel and, you know, can they work in

that company? Or will that somehow be beyond the pale? How do you give money, how do you allow your employees to write checks to people that have political views like that? me. There's a lot of Republican senators who I know well and we share a very similar philosophy. It's called the conservative philosophy. It's called Abiding by the Constitution. How are they going to write checks to those senators and those members of Congress? If criticizing not the racial policies of Black Lives Matter, but there are other destructive cultural policies, if those, if that's allowed to stand that that's equated to racism, in other words, you have to be a Marxist who wants to destroy the foundations of America

in order to be acceptable on questions of race, then I propose that we have 55% of the country that will get canceled. It won't just be me, it won't be my wife, it won't be my family, it'll be 55 or so percent of America that will be canceled, that will be somehow out of bounds for doing business with. This is critical America's never been here. They certainly haven't been here since the days when we went into armed conflict with each other

or signed the Declaration of Independence. Does it surprise you? I mean, does it surprise you that we're at this point? Because I'm looking at the news and I'm feeling really taken aback. And I'm asking that question of how do we spiral this quickly and where do we go from here? Well, the first thing we do is I've had so many, I just want to say the support I've gotten from people, Democrats, Republicans, friends from around the globe with our CPAC travels and just friends here in this country. It really makes me, have great confidence in the decency of Americans. I think most Americans know that we're in a bad place. The murder of George Floyd was terrible. Most of us saw it and we literally made us physically sick. Everyone's hoping that out of a tragedy, something good can come,

but also out of tragedy, a lot of additional tragedies can come. And if the destruction of the institutions of America and our ability to stand firm with the institutions that the country can survive, if that somehow is weakened after all this, So that's a very serious problem, because I won't help prevent the next George Floyd, who, by the way, was killed by a police force run by all these socialists, from the mayor to the governor, to the city council, to everyone. So the idea that somehow Democrats and socialism is going to solve the problems that were

evidenced by that video, to me, are very clear that the opposite could be true. They might want to consider different policies so that there's a much better result. But when I have, when people reach out and they say, hey, sorry that you're a victim of this cancel culture and this very scary time, I always tell them, they say, what can I do? I say, well, put your flag out. I'm literally hearing people are not putting their American flag out because they are afraid that they will be the subject of some violence. So put your flag out and get the biggest flag you can and maybe put a couple of them out. Second thing is, we get on our needs to say our prayers and we should all ask God for his protection for our country.

And every single person in the country, even those I disagree with, and even those who mean me harm. Let's pray. Let's pray as a country. That's one of the reasons why God allowed America to be established is this idea that we understand, at least most of us, we understand that God is good and he has an intention for each and every one of our lives. So fly your flag. Say your prayers. And if you possibly can, speak up. Speak up now.

Speak up as loudly as you can. Because if we're all silent, just like we were so many of us in 2016 with our support of President Trump, because there were repercussions in the workplace. There were repercussions in society if you said you were for this man. And so that's why he won when no polls showed that he was going to win. And that same dynamic is going on in our society. today, but it's much deeper than now than just a question of Donald Trump. It's much deeper.

It's can you say that you live in a good country? Can you say, I support the flag? These are very basic questions that are at risk. So if you can possibly be in a position to speak up, speak up, speak up now, and speak up loudly. And one of those individuals who is speaking up is the founder of Black Guns Matter, Maj Turi. He posted a video on Twitter. supporting you. He called you a buddy. And he explained that you've supported him and his organization over the years. How did you get connected with Maj Thoree? And why do you think that the work

he's doing is so important to building up the African American community? We, you know, we do CPAC every year. And we have the big national one. You know, Kay James spoke at our big national event in National Harbor. But we go all over the country now. And we go all over the world. And we actually live. literally stumbled across Maj because he puts out really compelling video content. And we stumbled across Maj and I think it was Dan Schneider who stumbled across them. We asked him to come speak at CPAC. And that developed into a great relationship with Maj and myself and several other people on the team.

He came with us to prison CPAC and he was powerful. He was a lot more powerful there than I was. That's for sure. I mean, his story is a great story. And his point is he believes he's a fierce defender of the Second Amendment, as I think we all are and should be. But he's actually teaching civics. That's what I hear when I hear Maj talk. He talks differently from me.

He uses a, you know, he has a different way of delivering his message than I do. It resonates with a lot of people. I've seen it. And he uses the Second Amendment and concerns about crime, specifically in kind of the urban cores of our country. country and talks about why the Constitution matters, why thinking about voting matters, why certain policies are more respectful than others. But I will also say that you worry when these terrible slurs are, these charges are made against you.

You wonder, what were your friends who are people of color think? And it meant a great deal to me to have him say those words, because I just don't think about Maj as a black friend. I think about Maj as like this really interesting civics teacher who's on the streets of Philadelphia and a lot of other cities having a big impact. And that's kind of the CPAC model, which is we don't always get the most famous, although I think a lot of the most famous speak at our conference. But we don't always get the most famous. Sometimes we get the person you've never heard of who can really deliver a powerful message. And he's one of those people. Yeah, he certainly is. Well, Matt, we encourage all of our listeners to follow you on Twitter

at M. Schlapp, and we just really appreciate your time today. Thank you for coming on the show. Well, we love the work that the Daily Signal does in the Heritage Foundation, and we appreciate very much that we get to collaborate together, and let's keep doing that. Absolutely. We plan on it. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. We really appreciate your patience as we record remotely during these. weeks. Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify, and please leave us a review or a rating on Apple Podcasts to give us your feedback. Stay healthy and we'll be back with you tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

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